Under Water

"Callaghan’s attention to historical accuracy is impressive throughout... [A]n engaging epic about loss, loneliness, and desire that perfectly encapsulates relatable human struggles." Kirkus Reviews Submerged beneath layers of history lies a long-ago buried secret. During the pandemic lockdown, Iris Pearl impulsively relocates her dulling marriage across the country in a bid to revive it. But renovating their Prerevolutionary Pennsylvania homestead gives Iris more than she bargained for when she makes a gruesome discovery, one that hurtles her and Benny’s haunted past to the present. Iris is desperately consumed by the desire to know what happened on her property over a century and a half earlier. Her search leads her to Irish immigrant Aoife Sprigett, the wife of Union soldier William. The further she digs into the mystery of Aoife’s fate, the deeper she reaches into her own secret history. While William serves in the Civil War, Aoife struggles to uphold her vow to maintain their livelihood, their farm, during his absence. Aoife’s only companion is their hired help, Thomas Walker, a freeborn black laborer. Aoife and Thomas develop a warm friendship as they toil side by side in the fields. Together, Aoife and Thomas sow deep seeds that bear deep-rooted consequences, which are now coming to light. Will unearthing the truth behind Aoife’s tragic past, which so closely parallels Iris’s own, free her and Benny from their marriage’s haunted history, or will revisiting that dark time destroy it?